Need for Speed: The Run has an awful lot going for it. The game offers a genuinely fresh take on the racing genre. Its high-octane Gumball Rally race across America takes in almost 3,000 miles of varied terrain, 200 other drivers and the Mafia. At its best, the game is a high-speed thrill, enabling you to play out your driving fantasies in super-fast dream machines. But at its worst, it's a rather monotonous and stuttering coast-to-coast parade over America (thankfully escaping the bouts of bad indigestion from greasy highway food). Need for Speed: The Run is certainly not a bad game - indeed, it will offer some people the different racing experience that they have been looking for - but its a shame that the title fails to fulfill its undoubted promise.

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The Run's take on the racing genre is certainly intriguing. The game starts with Jack Rourke, the player-character, trapped inside a red Porsche Carrera about to be put on a serious diet inside a car compacter. The young man has got indebted to the Mob and they want him dead, but thanks to a Heavy Rain-aping quicktime sequence, you are able to escape the crushing and flee. Rourke is then tempted by his friend Sam Harper into a race across America in the hope of winning a $25 million top prize and getting the Mafia off his back. Along the way, you'll speed through environments such as the glittering Las Vegas, the snow-capped Rockies and the sun-baked Mid-West plains in a variety of high performance cars. Sounds great, right? Well, in part, it is.

Jack must travel the whole breadth of America, but this is not an endurance race and you will only tackle short stints with a variety of objectives. Some sections will require you to make up a number of places, while others have you catching up time against checkpoints. Sometimes you will take on up to four opponents in 'battle races'. These involve overtaking them one at a time and then holding the lead to eliminate the rival. Alongside tussling with opposing drivers, you will also have to deal with the attention of the cops, who will get wind of the race and try to take you down with either roadblocks or 'California stops'. The addition of the police adds an interesting extra dimension to the racing, although it's strange to see professional officers set up road barricades with gaping holes in them.

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You are tasked with moving up the places to reach certain locations along the course, each marked by a story sequence and a quicktime event, during which you get out of the car and either have to escape the cops or the mob. But the story, in all honesty, is paper-thin. The characters of Sam and Jack never really elevate beyond just being part of the furniture, meaning it is difficult to care whether they win the race. There are long periods when you forget that there is a story at all, only for Sam to chip in with some pointless comment that brings nothing to the table. There are also big holes in the plot, such as drivers that you pass earlier in the race appearing again at the closing stages. This is a shame, because genuinely this is one of the more interesting concepts to emerge in racing games. But thankfully, the narrative provides enough of a frame for the action, and The Run certainly ramps up the action.

Alongside racing against opponents and the clock, the game features a range of scripted action sequences such as an escape from an avalanche and a rather ridiculous segment driving through Chicago being chased by a helicopter gunship piloted by the Mob (yeah, realism isn't The Run's strong point). It's these moments where this game really stands out, allowing you to play out those ultimate driving fantasies without the risk of a trip to hospital. Then there are the cars - various different high performance vehicles are available and they are all pretty fun to control, although it should be clear that this is very much an arcade racer. Controls are accessible and forgiving, but there is enough complexity to make things interesting. You must be wary of the sense of risk and reward, in that pressing the accelerator flat out and charging past an opponent always bears the danger that an obstacle around the corner will bring quick annihilation.

Much of the time in the game is spent careering down massive highways, and its a thrill to snake between the heavy traffic in Lamborghinis, Aston Martins and BMWs - all kitted with super-charged nitrous. It is necessary to maintain a careful balance between speed and control, particularly when moving between different environments and conditions, such as icy or wet roads. But while the cars are solid, the system for changing them is less successful. Instead of offering a garage option between the stages, the game requires you to pull into petrol stations while racing. Considering that stages are so short and punchy, stopping is the last thing that you want to do, while garages are also too few and far between. This means that you are often stuck with the wrong car for long periods, such as sliding perilously across an ice road in a sports car or flailing all over the place in a muscle car on a city circuit.

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What is great about The Race is the diversity of environments, taking you to the bright lights of the cities through the sprawling open highways and beautiful national parks such as Yosemite. The game is really well presented, with a great attention to detail in the environments, such as crop sprayers sending misty clouds over fields of corn in the run up to Chicago, and the glow of neon casinos buzzing with life in Las Vegas. This genuinely feels like a trip right across the US through all the diverse urban and rural environments therein. But unfortunately, its just a shame that the gameplay, story and premise just does not unite in a wholly satisfying experience. The gameplay structure of making up places or time is mixed up reasonably well, but all too often things become quite monotonous.

There are a number of flaws in the game that really sap the fun out of it, such as the irritating quick-time sequences on foot that don't control well, or add anything to the game. Considering that this is a road racer where you are careering across America getting chased by pretty much everyone, it seems rather jarring not to be able to go off road even just a little bit. In a sense, this is indicative of The Run's problem, in that it takes a really innovative and interesting premise yet fails to make the best out of it, while silly errors complete the picture.

After reaching New York and beating the game, you can replay certain sections and it constantly highlights how you are doing against your friends, ramping up the sense of competition. But the problem is that you can only revisit entire stages rather than individual events, meaning you have to plough through the bits you might not have enjoyed to get to the bits you did. You can also test your skills in a series of single-player challenges unlocked over the main race, enabling you to earn new cars. Need for Speed: The Run has an online multiplayer game that is divided into playlists, such as urban street racing or muscle-car battles. The multiplayer gives many more accessible options for doing what you want, when you want, and competing against human opponents is a much more satisfying experience than taking on the computer drones in the main campaign.

Need for Speed: The Run is a case of a good premise not quite realised. The idea of a cross-America race with everything at stake really feels fresh and interesting, but the paper-thin characters, weak storytelling and occasionally monotonous gameplay spoils the party. In all honesty, the game is not as good as last year's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, nor better than the many other great racing games currently available on the market. The Run is not a bad experience, but this game could have been so much better.